Bastian's Storm (Surviving Raine 2)

“Hey, Raine?” I called softly, almost wishing she wouldn’t hear me at all.

“Yes?” She pulled her head out of the closet and looked at me expectantly. When I didn’t answer right away, she narrowed her eyes a little. “What is it?”

“I was just…um…” I looked toward the balcony door and tried to come up with the right words.

“What, Bastian?” Raine dropped a couple items from the closet into her suitcase and came to my side.

I ran my hand over my face.

Just fucking say it.

“I was wondering if…if maybe…shit.”

Raine placed her hand on my arm, and I realized it was shaking as much as my hands.

“Bastian, what’s the matter?”

I closed my eyes again. I could do this. I was sure I could. I just needed my mouth to fucking work for once. I needed to say the right words in the right way, but all I did was babble.

“I just thought maybe with Alex and all and starting a new life in a new place…” I continued to stammer, trying to find something in my head that didn’t make me sound like a total idiot. With another deep breath, I fell back to the only way I’d ever managed to express myself without getting into trouble.

The Bard’s words were far better than my own.

“Might I not then say, 'Now I love you best,'

When I was certain o'er incertainty,

Crowning the present, doubting of the rest?

Love is a babe, then might I not say so,

To give full growth to that which still doth grow?”

I looked to the floor, took a deep breath, and then stared into her eyes. I pulled a little box from my pocket and laid it in my palm before I opened it. The shining, simple solitaire ring in the center of the velvet sparkled in the bursting Miami sun.

“Raine, will you marry me?”

Raine said nothing for the longest fucking time. There was sweat dripping between my shoulder blades, and the gleam from the ring was refracting rainbows all over the walls as my hand continued to shake. I realized I’d totally forgotten to get down on one knee, and mentally smacked myself for fucking up the easiest part of all of this.

I glanced from the ring to Raine’s face. Her eyes brimmed with tears, and my heart stopped. For a brief moment, my world ended as I waited for her to deny me.

“Yes, Bastian,” she whispered as the tears overflowed. “Yes, of course. Of course I’ll marry you.”

A huge breath escaped me, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing her and picking her up to hold her to my chest. I buried my face in her hair and tried to pretend all the tears belonged to her alone.

“Thank you,” I whispered against her ear. “Thank you so fucking much, Raine…thank you.”

“Oh, Bastian.” She tightened her arms around my neck and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I love you so much—so, so much!”

“I love you,” I replied, “more than fucking anything.”

I squeezed her to me again, and the shaking in my hands and arms finally stopped as I held her. Figuring I was probably keeping her from breathing, I relaxed my grip and set her down. I reached up and wiped the tears from her face.

“Do I get to put that on?” Raine asked with a smile. She pointed down at the ring still in my hand.

“Shit! Yeah…I forgot.” I grabbed the ring out of the little box and took Raine’s offered hand. With a deep breath, I slid it up and over the ring finger of her left hand.

It looked fucking perfect.